Exploring Arab Muslim Children's Home and School Literacy Experiences in Ontario

In this ethnographic study I explore the cultural practices and literacy engagement of first generation Arab Muslim children who either immigrated to Canada or were born to parents who immigrated to Canada. Responding to an ongoing concern within Boards of Education in the Greater Toronto Area around the underachievement of minority students and their disproportionately high dropout rates (McKell, 2010), I focus on Arab Muslim children since they are repeatedly identified as underachieving and under-researched. Although low achievement is typically linked to demographic markers such as race, socio-economic status and linguistic and cultural background, little is known of how immigrants socio-cultural practices, in particular religious practices, impact literacy learning in schools. Working from within a situated literacy framework (Gee, 1996; Heath, 1983; Street, 1997; 2005; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988), I explore how three Arab Muslim families, two whose children go to Islamic schools and one whose child goes to public school, engage their children in language and literacy acquisition. Moving beyond the findings of previous studies that document the central role of Islam in the daily lives of Muslims, observational data and interviews from this study highlight the extent to which religion influences and shapes the literacy choices, thoughts, and writing that form the childrens worldview. I conclude with a summative analysis of best practices and academic successes from private Islamic schools that provide insight into the underachievement of Arab Muslim children in public schools in the Greater Toronto Area.